OpenAI announced that ChatGPT is now available for iOS users. This will allow Apple users and ChatGPT Plus subscribers to finally get a dedicated app for the service on their iPhones. This should also resolve the repeated attempts of bad actors to offer fake ChatGPT apps for Apple users. However, finding the actual ChatGPT app in the App Store is still not easy.
If you are a ChatGPT Plus subscriber or someone who just wants to try ChatGPT on your iPhone, there is now an iOS app for it. Its creator, OpenAI, has just announced that it is now available in Apple Store and is integrated with its own Whisper technology to allow voice input. This should make the iOS experience more convenient and inviting to users.
As shared by OpenAI, the ChatGPT iOS version is armed with the same functions as its desktop counterpart. It also allows users to converse with the chatbot and ask it to perform various tasks, from summarization to composition and research. Most of all, the company stressed that it could provide “precise information without sifting through ads or multiple results,” something that makes it an attractive option compared to the ChatGPT-integrated model in Microsoft Bing.
Nonetheless, aside from bringing the ChatGPT features to iOS users, the app’s arrival in the Apple App Store should also prevent iPhone users from installing fake ChatGPT versions. Unfortunately, this tactic, which involves app creators using ChatGPT in their creation descriptions and even titles, is still rampant in the place. Worse, it seems the release of the actual ChatGPT iOS version won’t help much as the App Store itself still fails to surface the app when you search for it. For instance, searching for it (e.g., “ChatGPT” or “OpenAI ChatGPT”) will only result in other third-party apps, including dubious apps claiming to have GPT-4 model. (Here is a direct link to it, though.)
The problem with fake ChatGPT apps is not limited to the App Store. Google’s Play Store is experiencing the same, and so are other social media platforms like Facebook. Meta recently said it had already addressed this by flagging over a thousand domains distributing ChatGPT-like tools that were secretly hiding malware, but explained that the number of individuals affected was unknown since the campaign was outside its platforms. A report by researchers at Cyble in February, nonetheless, showed that Facebook itself had boatloads of fraudulent OpenAI pages for ChatGPT.
